knitting, greyhounds, roller derby, life, Crossfit, eat clean

“I’m going to Memphis” (channeling Johnny Cash)

One of my favourite places to eat in Vancouver is the incomparable Memphis Blues BBQ House. When I saw they put out a cookbook, I was ecstatic! This weekend I decided to get my act together and give some of the recipes a try.

Our first stop was to the local butcher. I wanted a brisket, but they didn’t have any. Apparently they go practically the same day and are hard to keep in the store. I asked if he had any plate ribs as one of the recipes I wanted to try was smoked short ribs. He disappeared into the back and hollered out that he was just trimming the bones …. so he gave me two plates of ribs – minus the ribs! Well, I still thought I could make it work.

look - it's a rib-sket!

I stacked the slabs then tied them together with butcher twine. I prepped some of the meal yesterday (i.e. made the dry rub, the bbq sauce, the cole slaw). The meat gets the dry rub applied, then it is smoked/bbq’d in our gas grill for 6-8 hours. I got a little cast iron smoker box at Canadian Tire and some apple wood chips. The chips get soaked in water so they don’t burn too fast, the smoker box sits under the rack of the grill, but on top of the gas element and has the burner turned on high. The meat goes on the unlit side.

heaven on a plate!

In addition to the rib-sket and creamy cole slaw, I also made the Memphis Blues Cornbread and the smoked pit beans (which used 1 cup of the “classic” bbq sauce). OMG! It was soooooooo good! The meat was fantastically tender, flaking apart. I also used a wet mop (beer, apple juice, molasses and brown sugar) to keep the outside of the slab from drying out. That, along with the dry rub, made a tasty spicy crust.

It was a pretty close homemade approximation of the fabulous stuff they’re cranking out at Memphis Blues with their big commercial smokers, etc. I can’t wait to try another meal!

When the big fella was in Vancouver on his business trip, his son and daughter-in-law and three grandsons made a trip down to spend the weekend with him. He got to meet grandson #3:

uh oh - I think he has the Royea ears, too!

The big fella is a star with the babies. They just freak me out, but he’s an old hand with ’em.

Noro Silk Garden Chunky capelet

Progress on the capelet. I still don’t know if I’ll have enough yarn for this … I love the colourway.

dozing in the cool grass

–

zzzzzz

Apollo is so laid back, he actually had an ant walking across his eyeball and he didn’t do a thing. Unlike Spazbrina who is always imagining horseflies are touching her:

gah! it's touching me! Did you see it?! GAHHH!

(Yeah, there was nothing there!)

whatevs, Spazzy!

And of course there was plenty of rib-sket left over, so the poor neglected little poopers each got a couple of morsels: